Even though I do not offer a Job Shadow opportunity, I do offer the student to meet with me to learn more about what a forensic center is, what the coroner's and medical examiner's responsibilities are and what a typical day entails.

Because an autopsy is one of many tools I use to help me determine a manner and cause of death in a medicolegal death investigation, the case is confidential until the final decisions are made to complete the death certificate that is issued to the family by Wyoming Vitals and Statistics.

I am a nurse first. During my 31 years of being a registered nurse in the trauma world, I beleive that my most rewarding experience has been the discovery of forensic science in 1989 as it pertains to nurses specifically. The American Nurses Association recognizes Forensic Nursing as a subspecialty in Nursing. My forensic nursing subspecialty is Medicolegal Death Investigation. Nurses are frequently the first medically educated to observe evidence of trauma as related to suspected crime, how, when and where did the trauma occur and at times, the inquiry of whether the deceased person is at fault or not and how they died. This discovery was the source of my inspiration to pursue a career in forensic nursing and death investigation over the past 31 years. I knew then that one day I would end my nursing career in a coroner or medical examiner’s office.